Easter!

April 4, 2010 - 4:00 PM

My friends are cute. We are happy girls who like things that make us feel good. Most of the time, these things include getting good grades, learning new things in our classes, developing new relationships, playing with animals, and, in the most recent case, EASTER EGG HUNTS.

Last year, as I'm sure I blogged about, Collin and I had an Easter egg hunt in his back yard with his mom. It was a ton of fun and we came out with some of my favorite pictures of us of all time.

This year, our friend Kinsley is studying at the Turnbull Center in Portland as part of the Portland Senior Experience offered by the U of O. Given that this was her first week in a new city, a city in which Collin and I grew up and where our parents live, we decided it would be nice to come home for the holiday and give Kinsley some support.

Luckily, Kinsley has already met people in Portland, so we weren't actually needed. But we were able to carry on the tradition we started last year by having another Easter egg hunt and inviting all of our friends and family.

Over the course of the weekend, we cooked and prepared parts of the meal that we would put together in time for the early-evening dinner that we had to have so that we could drive back down to Eugene for our 9 a.m. classes. And we dyed eggs for the smoked-salmon deviled eggs we would be having as an appetizer on the big day.

Jessica came up to Portland to celebrate with us. Sadly, Jessica's family hasn't spent too many holidays together since her dad died about five years ago. So this gave her an opportunity to feel part of a family for the holiday.

This morning, Easter Sunday, my dad and I went downtown to my grandmother's residence to have a breakfast buffet with her. It was a typical visit, but it was important to see her on the holiday, so I was glad we were able to do it.

Then, we got Jessica and Kinsley and went to Collin's house for the big event: the Easter Egg Hunt!

We each got baskets and trampled each other as we ran out to compete for the plastic eggs. When I was growing up, we only hid and hunted for real eggs, but who am I to complain about the abundance of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups?

So the four of us kids traipsed around Collin's back yard for 20 minutes while my dad and Collin's mom gave us hints and took pictures.

After we were done, we went back inside and worked on putting the dinner together. We deviled the eggs, made parmesan-thyme rolls from scratch, warmed the ham in the oven, sautéed the broccolini, and assembled our homemade fruit tart.

It was wonderful to have my family together. These people are my family. They are the people I love. The family structure is atypical-with my dad and his girlfriend, Collin and his mom, and my two friends whose families are either out of town or unable to create holiday events. But these are the people I love most in life, and I am so lucky to have all of them by my side on holidays like this one. I hope that they feel lucky to have the rest of us as well.

I wonder if all people finish their college years with such strong bonds.

Something to think about.